Broadway Subway Reality Check – Toronto’s 8.6 km Spadina Line Subway Now $3.2 Billion!
For those of you who have been pooh-poohing, Zwei’s cost estimate for the Broadway subway, the following news item from Toronto should send a not too subtle message that subways are very expensive to build and are only built when there is the massive traffic flows that demand long trains and large stations to accommodate the long trains.
The 8.6 km Spadina Line costs have soared from $2.6 billion to $3.2 billion and counting!
One can scale back construction costs by reducing the scope of the project, like the Canada Line, but then one is left with a very expensive subway, which will have less capacity than a simple streetcar at about a tenth of the cost. The Canada Line is the prime example of a political vanity project, which costs soared from the original $1.3 billion to now over $2.4 billion and still has pygmy 41 metre long trains and having stations platforms a puny 40 metres long, which greatly limits capacity.
Please forward to the metro mayors, the Premier and the Federal Liberals, that building subways, for the sake of building subways is a futile mistake which will cost billions of dollars more for future generations to put right.
Spadina subway extension could cost an additional $400 million
According to a TTC report, Toronto and York Region could be on the hook for an additional $400 million for the Spadina subway extension
Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star Order this photo
The dramatic, flying saucer design of the York University station on the Spadina subway extension is now clearly visible on campus. The three-dimensional shape is a signature element of the $118 million station. There are no straight edges at all, said construction site manager Peter Boyce.
By: Tess Kalinowski Transportation reporter, Published on Fri Jan 15 2016Toronto and York Region are facing an additional $400 million in construction claims and other expenses on the overdue Spadina subway extension.
The costs would be split 60/40, with Toronto on the hook for $240 million and York Region facing a $160 million cost for the 8.6-km transit line.
The extension, from Downsview Station to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre near Highway 7, is about 85 per cent complete. Testing will begin in April 2017 for an opening later that year, about two years after the originally scheduled launch.
